Oliver Nieburg informs that Perfetti Van Melle has been fined with 180.000 Eur for misleading claims associated to their chewing gum (Mentos, Happydent, Vivident and Daygum). The company rejects the accusation and says that “All claims on products are in compliance with relevant food legislation and fully scientifically supported”.

I must admit that I always found this field (what claims can be associated to the product) very difficult. Maybe because I am chemist and not lawyer, so when I dive into all these different legislations in each country, the different definitions (e.g. what is considered “organic”, or what is “natural”, …) and what can be claimed or not… I get a bit confused. However, it is very exciting and interesting to see what goes on and to learn more and more about this.

I want to forward to you today the article published by Confectionerynews.com about the functionality of a chewing gum that contains Cannabidiol (CBD).

The article mentions that inital bioavailability studies show promising results and now the company AXIM Biotech (specialized on research of products containing cannabis) will start clinical trials directed to alleviate symptoms of Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS). The bioavailability studies have been conducted with chewing gum containg 30mg of CBD. The current product in the market contains only 10mg of CBD. It is marketed in the USA under the brand Canchew(R). See the link here for the website of the product: Canchew

The gum is made by tabletting process instead of the traditional extrusion process. This is more familiar to pharmaceutical companies and one the best solutions to use chewing gum as delivery system for active ingrendients. The tabletting process has many advanatges (e.g. is done at low temperature, so it does not damage the active ingredient) but also some disadvantages (the chewing profile of the final product is not as “good” as a standard chewing gum, due to the hardness and the dryness of the piece).

The new 3D printers that have been developed during the recent years have shaken the whole industry in all fields, and they will influence the objects that we will see in the market in the next years. Then, why not chewing gum? How could it escape from this revolution? No way. Last month, Wacker, one of the leading suppliers of PVA to produce gum base, annouced that they have developed a process to produce 3D chewing gum using such printers. This will be presented during next ISM/ProSweets (Cologne, Germany 29th Jan – 1st Feb 2017), so I am eager to see it in action!

In the press release of the company (see link here) they mention a newly developed process under the name CANDY2GUM(R). This process involves cooking (as for standard candy production) and then their ingredient is added (Capiva(R) C03). This results on a product which behaves like a chewy candy at the initial chew and then becomes a gum. The idea is not new, I worked with this about 20 years ago, and before me many other people. The “Chewy Candy Gum” has been in the market in some contries and there are some patents (quite old as far as i know) about this. Cafosa marketed the idea under the brand “Velvet Gum” in the 90s. However, the product did not catch enough and the companies that started producing it did not keep it for a long time. Let’s hope that this new attempt, with this new ingredient, will be more successful. If this is linked to the 3D printed chewing gum (when I read the press realease it is not clear to me if they are linked or they are talking about two different launchings), then the chances of survival are clearly much higher.